Saudi Arabia drew global attention after reports that its air defenses had failed to stop missile and drone attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, despite annual defense spending of 112 trillion won ($78 billion). The Saudi military had repeatedly emphasized that it intercepted most of the incoming fire, but confirmation of large-scale damage prompted criticism that its response had failed.
CNN reported on the 13th that a Houthi attack on King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh killed 13 people and wounded about 300. The broadcaster said Saudi Arabia had launched its own investigation into why its air defenses failed to stop the Houthi missiles and drones.
According to the Associated Press, the Houthis first sent up multiple drones to disrupt air defenses, then followed with a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles that travel at sharply different speeds. Dozens of attack drones, high-speed ballistic missiles and cruise missiles flying erratic low-altitude paths near their targets were launched at the same time, making it difficult for Saudi Arabia's Patriot batteries to counter them, analysts said.
The Houthis appear to have overwhelmed Saudi air defenses by combining ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and long-range drones in a mixed-salvo tactic. The approach has become dominant in the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
There are similar precedents. In June 2025, during the Israel-Iran conflict, Iran concentrated attacks on major Israeli cities with new ballistic missiles, including hypersonic weapons, causing heavy damage. Israel's air defense system, which had boasted a 99% interception rate after blocking most of an Iranian ballistic missile barrage in April 2024, was fully penetrated.
Israel's defenses are layered, built around Iron Dome, which specializes in intercepting short-range missiles and artillery shells at ranges up to 70 kilometers, along with David's Sling (300 kilometers), Arrow 2 (1,000 kilometers) and Arrow 3 (2,000 kilometers). But Iran poured in hundreds of attack drones and hundreds of ballistic missiles, cracking what had been considered an airtight shield.
With mixed-salvo tactics now dominant on the modern battlefield, there is one development the South Korean military must watch closely: North Korea is turning the same tactic into an operational capability. On the 14th of last month, Pyongyang disclosed that it had conducted a joint strike drill mobilizing four types of weapons — cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, rocket artillery and drones.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, units selected from five artillery and missile formations took part in the drill, which mobilized new combat systems including various attack drones, strategic cruise missiles, large-caliber thermobaric rocket artillery and tactical ballistic missiles. North Korea had tested two or three types at once — tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and rocket artillery — on May 26, but this was the first time it fired four types simultaneously by adding drones.
The simultaneous test of multiple weapon types is seen as an attempt by North Korea to showcase its ability to evade air defenses and strike targets through mixed-salvo tactics, drawing on lessons from the war between Russia and Ukraine. The drill mobilized Hwasal-series cruise missiles, North Korean versions of the Harop and Hero loitering munitions, the Hwasong-11Ga short-range ballistic missile (KN-23) and the 600-millimeter super-large rocket artillery system (KN-25).
"North Korea put on display the combat experience it has accumulated from lessons such as the war in Ukraine, through a joint firepower drill mobilizing a range of weapons systems it has recently developed, including drones and short-range ballistic missiles," said Shin Jong-woo, secretary general of the Korea Defense and Security Forum. "It appears to have been aimed at overloading our military's air defenses and testing its ability to evade and strike them."
